


Visitor

by Mistflyer1102



Category: Skyfall (2012) - Fandom
Genre: Family, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-28
Updated: 2014-02-19
Packaged: 2018-01-10 08:10:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1157191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mistflyer1102/pseuds/Mistflyer1102
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>To be fair, James didn't exactly anticipate anyone other than Q being in the flat when he climbed through the window.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

_Almost there, I can do this._

James Bond grunted as he gripped the ivy vine for support, searching for his next handhold as he carefully balanced on a foot.  The side of the building complex he was scaling had several vines, but a few were already dying, limiting James’s options.  Gritting his teeth, he stepped and hauled himself up the last meter and climbed up onto the cement windowsill, balancing himself so that he could rest and catch his breath. 

Leaning forward, he examined the interior of the flat, just to make sure it was Q’s. His lover, whom he hadn’t seen in the last three weeks, had been conspicuously absent from Q-Branch when James returned.  Instead of doing the responsible thing and going home to his own flat and wait to see Q the next morning, James had decided to surprise the other man. 

Other than the unusual tidiness of the flat and the neatened arrangement of the throw pillows, everything seemed in place.  The familiar couch and armchairs were still circled around the coffee table (which had an unfamiliar mug with a coaster on it, Q usually used papers as his coasters), and a few cat toys lay strewn about the floor.  James smiled briefly when he noticed that the catnip mouse he’d originally bought to bribe his way into Missy’s good graces was missing, presumably with the calico herself.

He used a pocketknife to pick the lock open.  Q would not expect a threat coming from this way, only because the attacker would have to climb seven levels (James cheated and used the fire escape up the first four, where it ended, and then climbed the rest of the way) in order to reach the window, but James decided to talk to Q about that over dinner.  Lifting the window, he calmly swung his legs into the flat and then slid in, noting that while the living room lights were off, the kitchen and dining room lights were on, casting the living room in a dim glow.  Stepping gingerly around the toys, he moved to hang up his jacket and take his shoes off, reaching for the Walther next to move the holster without dislodging the gun.  Not when he’d gone through so much trouble to bring back intact for his partner to s-

“Oh.”

James froze at the unfamiliar, _female_ voice behind him.

 _Shit_.

Slowly, as to not spook the woman, he turned around, silently praying that she was at least dressed since explaining his mistake to Q was going to be difficult as it was.  Looking up, he made eye contact with an unfamiliar woman sitting at the dining table, a cup of tea halfway frozen to her lips as the other hand rested on Missy’s back, the cat perched on the woman’s lap looking every bit the queen she thought she was with the catnip mouse between her front paws.  Given that the woman’s exposed forearms weren’t scratched, James could only guess that this was someone Q or Missy knew well.

Very calmly, the woman lowered her teacup back onto its saucer and then looked up towards the kitchen.  “Dear, I thought you said you had a secure flat,” she said finally, glancing warily at James.

Q appeared from below the counter.  “Of course I do, I-” he stopped when he spotted James standing there.  “When did you get here?” he asked, brow furrowing in surprise.

“Just now,” James replied, glancing warily back at the woman.

“Climbed straight through the window,” she chimed in, turning to look back at Q, who nodded as he stood up again, brushing something off his cardigan.

“Yes, he does that,” he replied wearily as he stepped around the counter and placed an unopened package of biscuits in front of the woman before heading back to the kitchen.  “Tea or coffee?” he asked, glancing at James with a soft smile.  “I’m not going to get a call from O’Reilly anytime soon, am I?” he asked as he got the coffeemaker going.

“Coffee,” James said, guessing that Q wanted him to simply play along for a few more minutes.  He nodded once to the woman as he approached the table.  “Ma’am.”  As he sat down, he added, “Clean bill of health from O’Reilly, nothing to worry about.”

“That’s good… Mum, this is James Bond, James, this is my mother,” Q said as he pulled down James’s usual mug. “She came to London a few days ago, but I had to wrap a few things up before I could spend time with her,” he admitted, grimacing slightly as he pulled out the sugar.

“You may call me Emily,” she said, offering her free hand, which James took and shook.  “I hope you don’t mind that I took the guest bedroom, Alex said it wouldn’t be a problem,” she said before picking up her teacup again.

“Of course it’s not a problem,” James said, remembering that the only reason it wasn’t a problem was because James more often than not crashed in Q’s bed with him, usually just to sleep. He leaned back in his chair, turning over Q’s name in his head; it had been a little over a year since they started dating, and he finally had Q’s name.  The earlier panic started to fade, and he found himself relaxing again as he easily adapted to the new situation.  “Have you been enjoying your stay in London so far?” he asked, turning back to Emily, who nodded as she scratched behind Missy’s ears.

“Yes I have, thank you,” she replied, smiling.  “I’m surprised that Alex knows his way around the city so well, for having lived here only two years so far.”

“Like I said, I had an excellent guide,” Q said, setting James’s mug down in front of him and leaving the sugar bowl on the table before walking back to the kitchen to grab his own tea.  Sitting the mug down, he glanced at his mother and asked, “Do you need anything before I sit down?”

She shook her head before turning to James.  “Now, when he and I last talked at his great-aunt’s holiday party last year, Alex mentioned that the two of you worked together, but he didn’t elaborate,” she said, ignoring Q’s suddenly panicked expression.  “What is it that you do at Universal Exports?” she asked.

Q tried to cut in. “Mum-”

“Shush.  I still have questions from that party that you never answered and I thought I’d never have someone else to ask,” Emily cut in, turning to James as Q buried his face into his hands.

James grinned despite himself as Q tried once more to rally his defense.

“Mum,” he said before Emily could speak.  “I was thinking that maybe this afternoon, we could-”

“Dear, I’m a little chilly right now, could you please get my white sweater?” Emily interrupted, turning to glance back at her son, who stiffened.  James watched in growing amusement as she pouted and said, “I can’t dislodge Missy without wrecking this skirt,” while gesturing to the resting cat on her lap.

Q hesitated. “I can turn the heat up,” he said, starting to stand up.

“But if we’re about to leave, then I’d like to have it with me now,” Emily replied, still smiling innocently as Q floundered, looking anywhere but at his mother and James.  “Please, dear?” she said, sticking her lower lip out in a very familiar, puppy-eyed expression that James was used to seeing on Q’s face.

There was something immensely _satisfying_ about watching Q succumb to the same tactic he used on Tanner, M, and even James on occasion, when he wasn’t getting his way.  James coughed to cover his laughter as Q gritted his teeth and met his mother in the eye, no doubt aware of what Emily was trying to do.  Finally, when Emily sighed sadly, Q sighed, hung his head, and muttered, “ _Fine_.”  He scowled when he saw James trying and failing to conceal a smirk, and looked as though he was about to flip James off when he became rather aware that Emily was still watching him. He let out an irritated huff before stalking out of the room, Emily shaking her head as she smiled and sipped her tea.

“It’s good to see that for all his maturity, some things haven’t changed,” she said after a moment, stroking Missy’s back.  She glanced at James and said, “It was a little… unnerving, to be honest, when he came home for Christmas last year, back in 2012.  All serious, quiet, _jumpy_ even.”  She shook her head, and then said, “My aunt Pamela, his great-aunt, started plying him with drinks to loosen him up a little, and, well, the rest of the evening spiraled after that.”

 _December 2012.  Only a month after Skyfall_.  James remembered that he’d just barely started to talk to Q again as he began his recovery from mourning for M.  “What happened next?” he gently pressed as Emily took another sip of tea. 

“Well, in an attempt to take Alex’s mind off whatever was troubling him, Pamela asked him if there were, and I quote, ‘cute boys in the office’.  I disapproved the idea because he’d recently broken up with what’s-his-face from the _last_ company he worked at, um, Royal International, I think,” Emily said, frowning for a moment.  Shaking her head, unaware that she’d piqued James’ curiosity, she continued, saying, “Anyway, so he said that yes, there was someone he’d noticed, but only because that person was hard to miss in the first place,” she said, shrugging with one shoulder as Missy mewed softly, head-butting her mistress’ hand.  She glanced at James with a smile and said, “But he didn’t give us a name, description, or any other information other that he’s ‘stupidly perfect’ and ‘aggravatingly unavailable’ and ‘frustratingly gorgeo-’”

“ _Mum!”_

Emily glanced back at where Q had gone.  “Do you need help finding the sweater? Have you checked in the bottom of the bag?” she called.

Q stuck his head in, frowning.  “Which one?” he asked wearily, staring determinedly at his mother and not James.  It took the agent a second to realize that the quartermaster’s face was a bit pink.

Emily pursed her lips for a moment, and then said, “The flower-patterned one, check the others if it’s not there.”

Q nodded, lingering for a moment until his mother smiled innocently at him again.  Then he sighed, and headed back into the bedroom.

Emily turned back to James and said, “Now, as I mentioned before, I did have a few questions, but two of them have been answered already.” Absently scratching behind Missy’s ears, she asked finally, “What is it that you do at Universal Exports, and how did you meet Alex? He was a little vague when I asked him earlier.”

“A mutual friend set us up,” James replied, leaning back in his chair comfortably as he recalled that Tanner had been the one to arrange the rendezvous.  “We met in the National Gallery, Room Forty-two, if you’re curious,” he said, deciding to stick as close to the truth as he dared. 

“ _Really?_ ” Emily seemed impressed.  Lowering her voice, she asked, “How the hell did you get him pried off his laptop long enough to go to a museum?  Do you know how many years I’ve spent trying to figure that out?”

“The friend asked him,” James said, deciding not to tell her how he distracted Q from the laptop nowadays.  He knew it wasn’t quite appropriate of a subject to bring up in front of a partner’s parent.  “He and I work together in the sense that we watch out for each other,” he added.  “Namely, I work as a security officer at Universal Exports, and he ensures that I’m safe for the trip and I ensure that he’s safe here at home as best I can.”

“And climbing through the window constitutes as ‘ensuring that he’s safe here at home’?” Emily asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I was going to tell him that he needed to fix that, but I didn’t realize he had a guest,” James replied, nodding once towards her.  “I do take the ‘watching out for him’ seriously outside of official capacity as well, especially on those rare times that he leaves London,” he said before sipping his coffee.

Emily nodded.  “Is he really safe?” she asked after a moment, lowering her voice.  “I mean, he mentioned that he can’t really get too specific about his job, and I suspect that you can’t either, but I always knew that he was looking at a government post or even MI5 when he was in university,” she added quietly.  She hesitated, and then said carefully, “I feel like, from the half-truths he tells me when we talk, he might have followed that path…”

“He’s as safe as he can be,” James replied calmly, meeting her in the eye.  “I can’t guarantee anything, or tell you much, for that matter, but he’s as safe as we can make it be.”

She glanced away nervously, absently playing with Missy’s tags.  “Thank you,” she said finally, taking a deep breath as Missy head-butted her mistress’s stomach.  She pursed her lips for a moment. “Forgive me for being forward, but you two are also being safe together, right?” she said, turning right as James took a drink of coffee. “In the bedroom, that is,” she clarified.

It took James a second to catch onto what she was saying, and then another second to promptly choke on his coffee in surprise.  Emily watched him with an impassive expression as he reached for a napkin, her fingers scratching behind Missy’s ears.  James suddenly had a mental flashback to an encounter he’d once had with criminal underworld leader who had had a white cat, and he warily regarded Emily in case she had hidden intentions.  Straightening in his seat as he finished coughing, he carefully said, “Yes, we are, ma’am,” and left it at that, silently daring her to pursue the topic further.

She didn’t. Instead, she smiled and said, “That’s all I wanted to know,” before sipping her tea.  Sighing, she set the cup down and said, “I don’t know if you’re expecting the ‘hurt him and I’ll hurt you’ speech or not, but I won’t give it since Alex can handle himself quite well without my interference. Anyway, he seems happy, and that is what ultimately reassures _me_.” Glancing at James, she said quietly, “I just ask that if you ever feel that the relationship’s run its course, don’t lead him on.  Cut it off, and let him move on.  That’s all I ask.”

James nodded solemnly.  “Yes, ma’am,” he replied, maintaining eye contact with Emily until the door opened and Q slipped back into the room.

“Couldn’t find it, so I grabbed one of mine,” Q said, tossing the nicest cardigan James knew he owned to his mother, who caught it with ease.

“Thank you dear.  Now that I think about it, I wonder if I even packed it in the first place,” she said, winking at James when Q reached for his now-cold cup of tea. 

Q raised an eyebrow at Emily, who smiled innocently back.  “She didn’t show you the pictures, did she?  Did she say anything about me growing up?  If so, they were all lies,” Q said, slight panic evident in his tone as he looked back at James, who perked up again at the mention of incriminating photographs in the vicinity, most likely on Emily’s person.  Q, unaware of his partner’s thoughts, continued saying, “Did she bring up the window incident?  That-”

“Still shouldn’t have happened, as Missy wasn’t supposed to go outside in the first place,” Emily interrupted, finishing her tea before standing up.  Missy shifted her position as well, clawing her way up Emily’s shirt so that she was draped on a shoulder, paws wrapped around her mistress’s neck.  “I’m going to get ready for dinner, dear,” she said before turning to James.  “You will be joining us for dinner, correct?”

“I don’t see why not, I mean, only if you want to” Q said, glancing at James, who nodded.

“That won’t be a problem, I just need to get my jacket,” James replied, glancing between the two Winfields now that they were standing next to each other.  Q had inherited his mother’s dark hair and facial structure, but had hazel eyes to Emily’s brown.  It didn’t tell James much about the absentee father, but if neither of them mentioned the man, then James would hold his own questions.

Emily smiled, stroking Missy’s back.  “Excellent, let me get my coat and take care of my other baby before we go,” she said, turning on her heel and leaving the room.

Q visibly deflated as James stood up. “I don’t know what she said, and I’m sorry if she embarrassed you,” he said as James walked around the table to stand next to him.  He closed his eyes as James pulled him into a loose embrace, and then said in a low voice, “I know this isn’t what you had in mind for a return home…”

“Nonsense, she was delightful to talk to,” James said, smirking as he pulled Q close and closed his eyes as Q melted against him.  He kissed the soft dark curls lightly before resting his face against them, unable to imagine Q not being there in his life.

For a moment, he was at peace.


	2. Chapter 2

“Q…”

“Please James, I don’t mind,” Q said, moving his wallet out of James’ reach before placing it into a back trouser pocket.  Crossing his arms as James took a step back to reassess his approach, Q said, “Think of it as a welcome-home dinner,” he said in a placating voice, glancing over his shoulder to check on his mother, who was still arguing quietly with the coat check staff.  The host was still speaking with the couple before them in line,

James arched an eyebrow, and then leaned forward, startling Q as he whispered, “I can think of another way to celebrate homecoming, but I’ll settle for a kiss since we’re in public right now,” he said, stepping close enough to loosely wrap his arms around Q’s waist, smirking as the other man’s eyes widened.

Q gaped at him for a second.  “We are _not_ having sex in the flat while my mother is visiting, it was awkward enough when she asked me if the flat’s walls were soundproof last night.  I’d mentioned that you were coming home soon,” he whispered furiously, turning slightly scarlet even as James leaned his forehead against Q’s, rubbing the back of Q’s hand with a callused thumb. 

“All right, all right, whichever you’re comfortable with.  I still want that kiss though,” James said, smirking before he leaned down for a short kiss, his arms tightening around Q’s frame as the other man stiffened in surprise before relaxing again, letting James pull him into a tight embrace.  When they pulled apart, Q seemed less anxious, although he did reach back for the pocket as James strategically retreated just out of the other man’s reach, turning to smile at Emily as she joined them.

“Everything all right, Alex?” she asked, frowning slightly when Q scowled slightly, James trying to refrain from smirking as he slipped Q’s pilfered wallet into an inside jacket pocket. 

“Yes, everything is all right,” Q assured her, although James (and apparently Emily, judging from the raised eyebrow) didn’t believe him.  She did lean forward slightly to fuss with his jacket collar as James turned to speak with the host.  When the host gestured for them to follow him, James signaled Q to let him know that it was their turn. “Mum _, stop it_!” he hissed under his breath as they walked through the sea of tables.

“You know how I feel about your hair being this long,” Emily fussed, and James coughed to conceal a laugh.  He wasn’t successful; as they were sitting down at their round table, Q ‘accidentally’ elbowed him in the stomach as the two men sat down.  

The waiter soon collected their orders and menus, and then Emily turned her attention back to James. “Out of curiosity James, where are you from?” she asked, unconcerned as Q froze again.

“I was born in Switzerland, but I grew up in Scotland,” he said, leaning back easily in his seat.  “Went to Eton when I turned thirteen.”

Emily nodded.  “Alex’s paternal grandfather went to Eton as well, it was the first thing his father ever told me after a friend introduced us,” she said, ignoring Q’s curious expression as she fiddled with her purse before zipping it shut.  “I think he was trying to impress me, but it backfired.  Came back begging for forgiveness and a second chance the next day,” she said, setting the purse down on the ground before looking up at James.  “What did you do after school?”

“Joined the Royal Navy, where I met a mutual friend of Alex’s and mine, Alec Trevelyan,” James said, skirting around his dismissal from Eton; Q mercifully didn’t say anything.  “Our current employer found us there, and we’ve been working at Universal Exports since then.  Met Alex a couple years later, he’s one of the most brilliant people I’ve ever had the honor of working with,” he said, glancing at Q, who had ducked his head in embarrassment.

Emily smiled.  “Funny, he said the same thing about you,” she replied, leaning back in her chair with a smirk as different waiter than from before returned with a tray of drinks and the appetizers. 

_Brrring!_

“No, no, no, I told them not to bother me,” Q moaned as he fished his phone out, reacting faster than either James or Emily.  He frowned when he saw the number on the screen, and then carefully deposited the mobile in the center of the table.  “I have no idea how the hell he found my number,” he said, eyeing the number on the display.  He glanced at his mother and said, “That would be Ryan.”

Emily snapped her fingers, abruptly startling Q and James.  “ _Ryan_ , that was the name,” she said, turning to James, who immediately remembered their earlier conversation.  “What’s-his-face from Royal International,” she said, grinning before turning to Q.  “I thought you two didn’t talk after splitting up?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

“First time.”  Q calmly sat back in his seat again, easily covering up his unease to his mother but not James.  “Um, more like first time since before I got cau- er, hired by Universal Exports,” he said, carefully meeting his mother’s gaze as though avoiding James’s own.  “He called a month after the split, he wanted to try again and I said no.  I’m surprised he still remembers me, I kind of forgot about him,” he admitted, nearly jumping out of his seat when James reached underneath the table and placed what he hoped was a calming hand on Q’s knee.

Emily made a face.  “He called _me_ , looking for you.  I asked him why _he_ didn’t know, and he said the two of you had a disagreement a while back, and wouldn’t elaborate,” she said, sipping her water as the phone finally fell silent.  Checking her purse, she said, “If you two gentlemen could excuse me, I’ll be right back.  Alex, please order for me, I trust your judgment.”  Standing up, she left the table.

James watched her go before turning back to Q.  “All right?” he asked, taking Q’s hands in his own as Q leaned back in his seat, eyes fluttering close for a moment.

“Yes… just surprised that Ryan bothered to call,” Q said, refraining a sigh.  “His command of tech is almost as good as mine, I’ll bet you anything he called now on purpose since he knew I was with you and my mother and wouldn’t be able to politely cover it up,” he said, tugging his hands free so he could run them through his hair in frustration.  “Paybacks, I suppose, for erasing his credit history and closing his bank accounts since he wouldn’t stop calling…”

“Disagreement when the two of you split?” James asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Fight.  I was getting bored at Royal International and had started looking for a job elsewhere, he didn’t want me to go.  The ensuing argument was painful,” Q said, shrugging with a shoulder.  “Getting caught by MI6 was the unexpected factor…” he shook his head and said, “I’m sorry James, this isn’t quite what I had in mind when I proposed we all went to dinner…”

“It’s all right, you didn’t anticipate me coming home or him calling,” James soothed, kissing the back of Q’s hand before wrapping it in his own.  Nodding to the now-silent mobile, he said, “Ignore that and enjoy the rest of the evening, I’ll text Tanner to send any work-related messages for you through me, and when Ryan calls, we’ll know it’s him.”

“Or I can just answer the bloody phone and he’ll stop,” Q suggested, looking at his partner.

“Or you can just give me his address and he’ll _definitely_ stop,” James offered, grinning at the half-smile tugging on Q’s features. 

“Hah, I can’t have Mallory thinking that I have enough sway with the double-ohs that I can just randomly assign a target without getting questioned,” Q said, smirking as he straightened in his seat.  “It’s fine though, I’ll be fine, I’ll just change my information once I get back to work.”

“That raises the question, then, of how he found your number in the first place,” James said, warily eyeing the mobile as Emily returned to the table.

Q merely gave a strained smile before glancing at his mother.  “Out of curiosity, Mum, when he called, did Ryan ask for my number?” he asked, sounding calm despite the strained undertone that James heard anyway.

She nodded as she sat back down in her seat.  “I didn’t give it to him, though.  I know how you are with your privacy, and I said that I didn’t know when I’d be seeing you again,” she said, taking a sip of her water. 

Q nodded and glanced at James before he said, “I can check when I get back then.”  Squaring his shoulders, he glanced back at his mother, put on his best smile, and then said, “Mum, I was thinking…”

James tuned him out to discreetly text Tanner underneath the table, to keep MI6-related communication between the two of them so that Q did not feel obligated to pick up his own mobile.  Something sat wrong with James over the whole matter, but Q was his primary concern at the moment so hunting down ‘Ryan’ was not an option. Even more unnerving had to be the fact that he knew Q had changed his personal information at least twice since he became Quartermaster, and all were under virtual lock and key.

_How the hell did he get the information then?_

James’s phone buzzed less than two minutes later with Tanner’s reply— _Will do_ —and then he tucked his mobile away in a pocket before wrapping his hand around Q’s underneath the table.

 _One step at a time,_ he reminded himself.  _One step at a time._

Despite this thought, however, Q remained tense.  James soon removed the mobile from the table— _out of sight, out of mind—_ but it didn’t seem to affect Q either way.  Emily noticed Q’s behavior as well, and didn’t seem to mind playing along with her son.  James, meanwhile, texted the phrase ‘ _look up ‘Ryan’ and ‘Royal International’_ to R near the end of the evening, not bothering to reply to R’s request for an explanation.  Guiding the conversation to a different topic had been relatively easy, he simply asked Emily if Q had ever climbed through windows when he was young, and that launched several stories from both mother and son. 

“Why don’t you and your mother get ready to go while I pay, and you can bring the car around?” James offered as the waiter approached with the bill.

Q hesitated, but then nodded.  He then leaned forward and caught James off guard with a kiss, fingers desperately curling in James’s shirt.  James held him tightly before pulling away and murmuring, “We’ll figure this out, I promise, I promise,” in his ear.  He held Q tightly for another moment before letting him go, allowing Q to stand up and glance at his mother, who was checking her purse. 

“Did you lose something?” Q asked, frowning as Emily glanced up at him.

“Thought I misplaced my makeup case,” she replied, zipping her purse closed and placing the strap over her shoulder as she walked around the table.  “Found it though, it was sitting at the bottom of my bag,” she said, placing a reassuring hand on Q’s shoulder as she passed him.  Q glanced at James, who gestured for him to go after her, and then turned back to speak with the waiter.

When he finally rejoined them at the restaurant entrance, Q was in the middle of what appeared to be a small argument with his mother, one that ended as soon as James approached the two of them.  “Everything all right?” he asked, glancing at Q, who nodded stiffly before moving to the entrance as he pulled the car keys out of his pocket, leaving James behind with Emily.

“Don’t worry, he’s upset with me, not you,” she said, shrugging on her coat.  She paused to let James pull the opposite sleeve up so she could slip her arm inside.  Shaking her head, she said, “He’s usually so calm about this sort of thing, even taking Ryan into consideration.  It was just a phone call.”

“True, but he’s changed his contact information at least three times since he and I have met,” James said in a low voice as he pulled his own jacket on.  “When the two of you talk to each other over the phone, who calls first?”

Emily frowned. “He does,” she said, pulling her mobile out as James guided her towards the door.  “If I miss his call, I usually call him back, I mean, I always let him call first since I don’t know what his schedule is like and I don’t want to distract him,” she said, scrolling through her contacts list as James caught her shoulder to keep her from walking out into the car park.  She frowned, and then glanced at James.  “Who would want to hurt him?  I’m not just saying that as an oblivious parent, which apparently I _am_ , but honestly.”

James hesitated, and then decided not to tell her that almost every criminal organization in the world, along with the occasionally irritated American CIA, would _kill_ if it meant they could get their hands on Q for several hours. Not to mention that Q’s personal information, due to his status as an MI6 executive, was supposed to be close to nonexistent.   Instead, he said, “I’ll look into it, don’t worry about it,” he said as Q brought the car around, his earlier irritation having disappeared.  James opened the passenger door for Emily, and, after glancing at Q and seeing unspoken relief at seeing the two of them. 

He sent a message back to R saying, _‘It’s about your boss’_ as Q drove home, half-listening to Emily talk about an old neighbor of theirs.  At one point, James felt Q’s mobile buzz again, and a quick check confirmed that it was the same number that had spooked Q earlier.  James was sorely tempted to answer the phone, but he accidentally caught Q’s eye in the rearview mirror, and so reluctantly put the phone away again.

When they finally returned to the flat, Emily kissed Q on the cheek.  “Thank you both for the lovely evening,” she said, smiling when she glanced at James as she shrugged her coat off, Q taking her purse so that she could use both hands.  She turned back to Q and said, “I’m going to go get ready for bed now, but I’ll be out here reading in the living room.” Tucking back a strand of dark hair, she said, “Remember, there’s nothing we can do about it until tomorrow.  Right now, though, I think your partner’s feeling a little bereft of attention.”

Q stared at her before she pointedly raised an eyebrow, and then he caught her drift.  He hissed _“Mum!”_ even as James moved away, shaking his head as he hung their jackets up in the hall closet.  He slipped Q’s wallet back into the jacket pocket before closing the hall closet door.

“Good night, James,” Emily called after him as he turned to leave.

He nodded once in response.  “Good night, he

James then headed into the bedroom he shared with Q, pulling out Q’s mobile and setting it into the bedside table drawer on his side.  Shutting the drawer, he pulled his own mobile right as R replied with _‘Where do you want me to even start?’_

For a moment, James stared at the message, silently irritated that this would be easier if Q wasn’t terrified at the mention of Ryan.  Although, now that James thought about it, it was more anger than terror on Q’s part.  An angry Q was perhaps a little worse than a terrified Q because when angered, Q was more likely to strike back hard and _fast._   Worse yet, Q had the air of a cornered animal, and was choosing the fight route instead of flight.  Pressing his lips together in thought, he texted back, _‘Email basic information and history outline to me’_.

_Click._

James stiffened as he looked up, but relaxed when he saw it was Q opening and shutting the bedroom door.  He then silently pulled his cardigan off before reaching for the laptop in the drawer on his beside table.  “Is everything all right?” James finally asked as his partner set the laptop down long enough to kick his shoes off before moving to sit cross-legged on the bedspread.

“Yeah, um, Mum helped me figure out how Ryan could have gotten a hold of my number,” he said quietly, powering up the laptop as James set his phone down on the table so he could move and sit next to Q.  The other man finally rested his head on James’s shoulder after a few moments even as he accessed the web browser.

“Is it something you can easily fix from here?” James asked, watching as Q typed in a familiar web link—it came up on the search history below the address bar—for St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. 

“No… not really,” Q admitted as he pulled up a login screen for outpatient care.  “My hands are tied,” he said in a small voice as he logged into the network.  James’s brow furrowed first in confusion, wondering if there was a medical condition that Q hadn’t told him about.  “It’s the one place where my information is outside of MI6 control, and Ryan is a hacker like me.  We taught each other since we met during our internship at Royal International.  I can get into here, and so can he,” he explained as he scrolled through the account’s dashboard to access the ‘CONTACT INFORMATION’ tab.  James wrapped an arm around Q’s waist as he watched Q scroll through the new page, bypassing the patient’s information before reaching a second section labeled _‘Primary Contact’_.  It took James to a second to realize that Q’s information was here, complete with his email (non-MI6, James noted), both landline and mobile numbers, name, and his relationship to the patient— _Son_. 

For a moment, neither man said anything as Q calmly accessed the landline number and deleted it completely from the field.  “I’d rather my mobile number was exposed, I know he can backtrack numbers and if he’s gotten my mobile number already, he probably has my landline as well,” Q said quietly, fingers shaking even as he methodically deleted his email as well.  “This isn’t fair…”

James held Q tight as he silently considered the situation.  “And you won’t change anything else because you want the doctors to be able to get in touch with you, but at the same time, you can’t put MI6 encryption levels on this account because not only would it single your mother out to the staff when they can’t access it,” he said quietly, “but it would also alert Ryan that you’ve improved since you last saw each other, inciting a cyber war of sorts.”

“And I don’t want Mum in the middle of it all.  She says not to change anything, but she doesn’t realize that it can and will get worse if I don’t do anything to stop it,” Q said in a small voice.  He hesitated, and then whispered, “I don’t know what Ryan wants _now_ , I’m nervous that if I pick up the phone when he calls, he’ll talk me into coming back or something like that.  He’s persuasive like that, he could charm a saint into committing murder.”

James remained silent, burying his nose into Q’s dark hair.  “Did he ever-”

Q shook his head.  “No, he never did anything like that.  It’s just that when I wanted to leave, he wouldn’t let me go.  It didn’t help that Mum went to the hospital for the first time then, either.  That’s how he knew she’d be in the system; he was helping us for a while until I broke it off.  I thought he’d forgotten me, thought he’d moved on-”

“Give me his address, and we’ll tell Mallory that he was threatening you,” James whispered, hand curling around Q’s wrist as he spoke.

He felt the tension in Q’s shoulders as Q swallowed. “I don’t know it, I deliberately cut off all ties between us.  If I can hide online, than so can he.  I just messed up with the phone numbers and forgot that he knew Mum was there,” he said, turning to nuzzle James’s neck. “I wish I knew _why now_ , after years of no contact…”

James considered his options, well aware that if he played his cards right, he could get one of MI6’s three, ‘undercover’ civilian doctors to take charge of Emily Winfield’s care, giving Q the opportunity to encrypt the information and cut off any other connections and leave Ryan stranded.  James would then have his chance to quietly eliminate the threat before he became too much of a problem.  Tilting Q’s head up gently to kiss him, James murmured, “Let me take care of it from here, there are people I can talk to.  Then you and I will find his address, and I’ll find out what he wants and then make sure he won’t bother you or your mother again.”

“But what if he-”

“Shush.” Kissing Q again, he whispered, “Let me handle this, I can even make it look like an accident if it comes to that.  I didn’t get my license on dumb luck alone.”

Q huffed as he allowed James to close the laptop and set it aside.  “Don’t knock my computer to the ground,” he warned as James gently pushed him back to lie on the bedspread.  Keeping his grip on James’s wrists as the agent moved to lean above him, Q furrowed his brow before he said, “What if he’s into terrorism of some sort and needs me to do something and tries to use Mum to bargain?”

“Then he’ll have to get through me first.  Now stop worrying,” James whispered before catching Q’s next complaint in his mouth, groaning as Q reached up and wrapped his hands around the back of James’s neck.

He still felt as though Q wasn’t telling him everything, but he let it lie for now.  At least for this night, he knew that both Q and Emily were safe.

**Author's Note:**

> A little something I posted on Tumblr recently. I hope you enjoyed it :)


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